PereSnik"t said something. Dr. Epsleigh looked at Holt questioningly; the young man had already growled a brief answer. "He wanted to know if it were the chanting time yet. I told him no. The prey is still too distant."
In the forefront of the pilots, Amaranth restlessly shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Let"s get on with it," he said. "It"s getting late and we"re all getting curious whether we"ll live or die."
That triggered smiles and nods from those around him.
Dr. Epsleigh shrugged. "You"ve heard what I have to say about tactics. Just do what"s necessary to get the "Reen as close to the machine"s surface as possible."
Anything else seemed anticlimactic. Holt led the "Reen out toward the ships. Tanzin followed with the pilots. They mixed at the doors of the hall. The neat divisions along species lines no longer seemed as clear-cut as at the beginning of the day.
Dr. Epsleigh lingered, waiting by a door. Morgan came up to her. "Sympathetic magic and PK indeed,"
the administrator said. "Should I have said good luck? G.o.dspeed? I might as well simply admit I am sending you all out with thimbles and forks and hope."
Morgan squeezed her hand, "You may be surprised by who all come back." Silently, behind her rea.s.suring smile, she thought, I know I will be.
Together they walked toward the field and the ships. The dying sunset looked like blood streaking the sky.
The machine did not overtly react when it detected movement in the distant fleet of fighters. Other craft were rising from the planetary surface and joining the group. The boojum"s sensory systems registered each increment of numbers, every measure of expended energy.
The fighters began to disperse toward the machine in no particularly discernible formation. The boojum searched for patterns and found none.
Then the machine completed another in its infinite series of weapons system status checks.
The ships in the approaching swarm flared energy.
Everything seemed to be fine. The oblivion within the machine waited to be defined and fulfilled.
Like silver shoals of fish they rose up, the fighter formations rising from Almira"s surface. Throttles open, the fighters accelerated. Superheated steam plumes whirled back from the craft, propelling them into an ever blacker sky where the stars had begun to glitter.
The stage, thought Dr. Epsleigh, watching from her tower window in the Wolverton terminal, is set. The ma.s.sed scream of the rockets deafened her.
She realized the fingers of her right hand were curled into a fist, and that fist was upraised. Get the b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
SHIP"S LINK.
CHANNEL CHECKS.
Wolverton Control/All Ships: "The Princess Elect says "Good luck" and bring back a chunk of the boojum for the palace garden."
Amaranth/Wolverton Control: "Stuff that! We"re gonna bring back enough sc.r.a.p so the palace gardeners can make a whole public gazebo."
Bogdan/Wolverton Control: "I like the sound of "gazebo," Can we perhaps code the machine that instead of "boojum"?"
Wolverton Control/Bogdan: "Sorry, fellow. Too late, Boojum it is."
Anonymous/All Ships: "b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. Death be what it is."
Holt/"Reen Channel: *Our Hair-like-Morgan-elected-leader-serving-from-the-ground tells you all "Good fortune and success in the hunt."*
PereSnik"t/"Reen Channel: *Could not your leader/shaman/provider have initiated so enlightened a sentiment a bit earlier than tonight? As perhaps her forebears could have three or four hundred world journeys ago?*
Various/"Reen Channel: *amus.e.m.e.nt*
Holt/"Reen Channel: *There were many sad winters...*
PereSnik"t/"Reen Channel: *Sad winters...?! Skelk droppings, Son. What we do now is a perversion of the Calling that gives me dismay. This is not food-gathering.*
Holt/"Reen Channel: *It is a greater good.*
PereSnik"t/"Reen Channel: *My unthought-out comment is unsuitable for either furred ears or bare.*
Various/"Reen Channel. *amus.e.m.e.nt*
Holt/"Reen Channel: *I am unthinking. Forgive me.*
PereSnik"t/"Reen Channel: * Let us concentrate on our onerous task. Let us pursue it with honor.*
All/"Reen Channel: *antic.i.p.ation*
*hunger*
*exultation*
Runagate/LNTCVPl-Bob/ Ship, is your pilot"s survivability index high?
LNTCVP1-Bob/Runagate: He has luck, skill, and courage. My level of confidence is high. Why do you inquire?
Runagate/LNTCVPl-Bob: My pilot"s interest level in your pilot is increasing. Her concerns are mine as well.
LNTCVP1-Bob/Runagate: I perceive an equivalent status on the part of Holt. I hold no wish to see him injured in any way.
Runagate/LNTCVP1-Bob: Then we both must survive.
LNTCVP1-Bob/Runagate: The projections do not encourage me.
Runagate/LNTCVP1-Bob: We shall live with them.
LNTCVP1-Bob/Runagate: I will look forward to discussing these matters with you after the battle.
Runagate/LNTCVPl-Bob: Likewise. And with pleasure... Bob.
Morgan ordered Runagate to adjust the artificial gravity so that a satisfying, but less than debilitating, G-force would trickle through the system and settle both "Reen pa.s.senger and the pilot snugly into their harnesses.
Takeoff acceleration hadn"t seemed to bother MussGray at all. The artist had endured the climb up to the stratosphere stoically, listening to the voices on the "Reen channel. He had not so much as shut his polished jet eyes as the ship shuddered and sang. The "Reen hunter in him bared his teeth at the screens as they imaged the distant boojum. He unsheathed his claws.
Morgan lay cradled in her pilot"s couch and exulted in the profligate power of the torch, powering her ship. She restrained herself from putting Runagate into a vertical roll. Time enough soon for fancy maneuvers. But, she thought, the power, the sheer, raw force propelling her into s.p.a.ce atop a column of incandescent vapor was the most intoxicating feeling she had ever known.
Competing information channels buzzed and bleated within her ears. Almira and Wolverton Control, the fleet ahead, her colleagues, the "Reen, Runagate. Morgan had ordered her ship to monitor all links, including the "Reen channel, and to mix whatever communications he deemed important.
"That may confuse you a bit," Runagate had said.
"I"ll live with it."
For all effective densities, Runagate cleared atmosphere. Morgan ordered the simulators on. Her ears registered the distant rumble of the other fighters. The ship shuddered slightly beneath her and she heard the closer, rea.s.suring roar of knife-edged fins slicing through vacuum.
Holt glanced at the silver-furred "Reen bulked in the acceleration couch beside his. His adoptive father looked steadily back at him.
"The boojum is accelerating toward us," said Bob. "Must be getting impatient."
"Perhaps merely suspicous," said the ship.
"Keep on the direct intercept." Holt sighed and said to PereSnik"t, *Was it necessary for us to wrangle before everyone listening over the channel?*
PereSnikt"s muzzle creased in a grin. *Are we not still speaking to the rest?*
*No. For a short time we can talk in privacy.*
The "Reen paused in obvious deliberation. *My son, I now realize I haven"t prodded you enough.*
Holt stared at him questioningly.
*I believe I erred in turning you back quite so young to the barbarians in North Terrea.*
*I could not join the Calling. There was no-*
PereSnik"t held up a paw, the underside gleaming like well-worn polished leather. *It may be that my judgment was premature. No shame to-*
*No!* Holt turned away from the "Reen.
PereSnik"t shook his ma.s.sive head slowly and sadly. *It will grieve me if I must conclude you are less of the People than I suspect.*
*I am all too human-*what is it, Bob?" Holt answered the imperative blinking of a console tell-tale.
"Runagate messaging," said Bob. "Morgan would like to speak with you."
Holt"s spreading, silly smile was indeed all too human.
Amaranth goosed his ship out of the atmosphere. It was not that he had to be the first fighter in the a.s.sault-although he wouldn"t have turned the position away-but he also knew he didn"t want to place anywhere back in the pack. "First in the hearts of his countrymen," he sang atonally. "First to fight their wa-orrr."" The last note jangled dissonantly in his own ears.
Tanzin"s voice crackled over the ship"s link. "Perhaps you could, uh, sing, if that"s the precise verb that fits, privately instead of on-channel?"
"She"s right." Bogdan"s voice.
"It"s a war song," said Amaranth, "I"m building morale." He hit another, more than slightly askew, note.
Only a meter away, his "Reen pa.s.senger growled ominously.
Amaranth stopped singing, "You"re a critic too, my hirsute colleague?"
Another growl, prolonged, rumbling low in the "Reen"s throat.
"ThunderWalker, that"s your name, right?" Amaranth said to the "Reen hunter. "ThunderWalker, perhaps you"d like to join me in a duet."
The ship"s link garbled and jammed as a dozen voices said the same word.
"Um; I... never heard anything quite like that said on a ship"s link," Holt said. He wondered if the warmth showed on his face.
"And quite probably you won"t again," The smile permeated Morgan"s voice. "Don"t worry, it wasn"t public. Runagate and Bob locked in the channel."
"We had better open up that channel." It was Runagate"s voice, "Things are heating up considerably with the boojum."
"Channel open," said Bob, "Good luck, everybody."
"Buy you a caf after this is over," Morgan said.
The brain of the machine juggled probabilities, determining whether it should, for the time being, ignore the first ships now violating its zone of effective weaponry, in order to lure the great ma.s.s of them into range.
SHIP"S LINK.
CHANNEL CHECKS.
Amaranth/All Ships: "Well, that was easy."
Holt/"Reen Channel: *Though we are in range of its talons, the prey has not sprung for the bait.*